Ann Wilbourn and the Spa at Beckenham carry the flame for Mytime Active

Mytime Active’s Ann Wilbourn has scooped one of the leisure industry’s top national awards for outstanding achievement by creating "a lasting legacy in their community that inspires more people, to be more active, more often."

Ann won the Spirit of Flame award at the Flame Awards ceremony in Telford organised by ukactive, the leading industry voice for the leisure sector with a mission to ‘make more people, more active, more often’. Ann is the lead for Mytime Active’s flagship physical activity programme for older people, Primetime. Keith Sykes from the Partnerships team said:

"Ann has an infectious passion for physical activity and creating environments where all people regardless of age or disability are able to thrive and enjoy exercise.

She does exactly what we want to achieve as on organisation; Ann uses her knowledge, experience, professional expertise and enthusiasm to engage with people to improve their health while making it a positive experience for them. As a result, she cannot take two steps in any of our centres without being stopped by one of her volunteers or customers to chat and talk."

Primetime membership is now pushing 2,000 and Ann and her team have now enabled over 500 inactive older men to access a range of physical activities. As well as drawing in extra activities funds for the organisation through spotting funding opportunities, Ann has driven dementia awareness throughout Mytime Active.

The Spa at Beckenham makes the final eight

It was a doubly good evening at the Flame Awards ceremony, as the Spa at Beckenham was shortlisted for Leisure Centre of the Year Award making it to the final 8. James Williams, General Manager, said:

"We are delighted by having reached the finals of this prestigious competition. We would never have done it without the dedication of our staff who manage to provide a truly local community facility but one of a very high quality."

James explained that once a full debrief from ukactive is received, the team will take the learning and be even stronger next year!

Ann and the team at the Spa are excellent examples of how our values and overall proposition of ‘getting more from life’ are happening every day for our customers and members throughout Mytime Active. Congratulations to all involved.